The Risk: A Billionaire Romance (Wagered Hearts Series, Book 2) (31 page)

And yet, he wanted something more. Beneath the carefree devil-may-care attitude he wore in public, Andreas was a thoughtful man. The hard partying lifestyle was taking its toll with each passing year and he felt like he was wasting his life with his frivolous partying and sleeping around. But he felt powerless to stop.

He began to feel like the only way his life would ever change would be from a miracle or disaster. That disaster happened in the form of a beautiful woman. At the time, he thought she was his miracle. She was the sister of one of his school friends.
Caroline Hess
. He thought he’d fallen in love at first sight.

Andreas learned the hard way that appearances could be deceiving. Outwardly, she was every man’s dream come true. He thought she was a sun kissed golden goddess, with ice blue eyes the same shade as the cloudless sky. Her speech, manners, and the way she carried herself all pointed to a woman who had grace, elegance, and serenity. This was a woman who he could change his life for. She would help him be the man he knew he could be—one he’d wanted to be all his life.

But he’d been tricked by her beauty. Beneath the lovely exterior was the heart of a scheming, lying, social climbing whore who’d stop at nothing to get what she wanted. She was very good at making him believe she loved him, but the whole time she was plotting against him. Before he even realized it, the rug had been pulled right out from under him. He’d played right into her hands and gotten burned, badly.

In some way, he thought he deserved what happened to him. It was karma for all the bad things he’d done in his life. The scorn, ridicule, and judgment were heaped upon him in droves. He couldn’t go anywhere or do anything that wasn’t scrutinized and examined with a fine toothed comb.

Andreas gave an involuntary shiver just remembering that time. He couldn’t even bring himself to think of Caroline or what she’d done to him.
No, the past was best left in the past
, he told himself. He’d spent the past year feeling sorry for himself, drowning his sorrows in bottle after bottle of alcohol. His family finally had enough of it. A harmless playboy they could live with, even tolerate. But Andreas was slowly slipping farther and farther down a dangerous path. His family knew they had to stop him before he was lost to them forever.

They picked him up and sent him off to a “retreat” to clean himself up. It had been hard at first. He was angry and belligerent, mocking the staff and not taking anything to heart. He thought his family had abandoned him too and left him to rot away with the least inconvenience to themselves.

Andreas didn’t know when his attitude started to change, but slowly it did. It was a humbling experience for him and he vowed then and there to turn his life around. He’d been given a great opportunity to do some good in the world, and he was squandering it away. Now was the time to finally become the man he’d always wanted to be.

One afternoon about a month after he had returned, his mother called him into her sitting room and told him to pack his bags. He was headed for New York. He would be heading up their family’s interests in their real estate holdings company. He knew the real reason for sending him away was a test. It was time for him to grow up.

Laila had never met any man named Andreas before.
Andreas De Berg
. That was the name on his ID. It sounded foreign, European and strangely sexy. She had tried hard not to show the surprise and hurt she felt when he’d spoken to her so rudely. Sure it was only a quick sentence, and maybe he had his reasons, but that didn’t stop it from stinging a little. Laila had thought he was different and there was a look in his eye that gave her goosebumps.

She shook her head at her thoughts.
Damn, I need to get this guy off my mind. He’s not thinking about me and I sure as hell won’t waste my time thinking about him
, she berated herself. As if to underscore her point, she gave her head a hard shake as if that would help jumble him out of her thoughts.

“Hey Laila, whatcha doing there?” Gary the porter asked, walking up to her counter.

“Oh nothing, just got a crick in my neck,” she lied, embarrassed for being caught.

“That’s not gonna help you get rid of your crick. I’d be surprised if you didn’t injure yourself further shaking it around like that,” he said.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. So what are you doing in here today? I thought you had the day off?” she said.

“I do. I’m here to pick up Honey.”

Honey was Gary’s granddaughter who recently got a job at the hotel as a maid. The young girl had just graduated from high school and was using the job to try to make money to pay for college. She was a bright kid with a good head on her shoulders, and everyone knew she was the apple of her granddad’s eye.

“Do you want me to ring housekeeping for you?” Laila asked.

“Naw, don’t bother. She’ll be down when she’s finished. Besides, I wanted to ask you how the audition went,” Gary said.

Laila pursed her lips as heat flooded her face. She wanted to forget all about that audition like a bad nightmare, but she had been so excited beforehand that she told everyone about it. It was only natural for Gary to ask how it went. With more cheeriness than she felt, she gave Gary a tight smile before answering.

“I thought it went okay. They said they’d call me if I got the part, but they had to audition some more people first.”

Something about Laila’s tone of voice caught Gary off guard. He had a feeling she wasn’t being completely honest and asked her point blank what really happened. Laila was on the verge of doubling down on her lies, but then thought better of it. Gary had been like a father figure to her, and she needed to tell someone the truth. She leaned closer and looked around to make sure no one could eavesdrop. When she was satisfied of their privacy, she spoke in a hushed tone. “It wasn’t even a real audition Gary. It was for a…a…porno.” Laila said the last word in a whisper.

Gary’s eyes widened as he looked at her. “Why would they send you out to audition for one of those movies?” he asked.

“Beats me, but you can bet I let my agent have it when I got out of there. You wouldn’t believe how shady everything was.”

“Oh I can imagine,” Gary said shaking his head. “That wasn’t right, what they did. The next time you go to an audition, you just let me know. I’ll go with you so you’re not at some seedy location alone with these creeps.”

Laila was touched by Gary’s offer and she placed her hand atop his old wrinkled one on the counter and squeezed. “Thanks Gar. I appreciate it, but you can’t take the time off work. Besides, I doubt I’ll be going to any more auditions anytime soon.”

“Why’s that?” he asked.

“Cause my agent quit on me when I told him I couldn’t go through with it,” she answered.

“You did the right thing,” he said, nodding his head.

“Yeah well, without an agent, it’s hard to get parts. No one’s gonna pick up my phone calls,” she said.

Gary patted her hand in a fatherly gesture. “Don’t you be so down on yourself. You just gotta keep your head up and good things will come to you,” he said.

“I sure hope you’re right. I could use a bit of luck in my life right about now,” Laila said.

It was true. The past year had been hard for Laila. Her mother got sick last year and was in and out of the hospital unable to work. She recently passed away leaving Laila not only with a gaping hole in her heart, but mountains of medical bills and funeral costs as well. Laila was just barely surviving. Each day it was like she was just trying to keep her head above water. She was tired of the struggle and fighting every day to make ends meet.

The acting job she was sent to by her agent was supposed to be her big break—something good that would lift her out of the rut she’d been in the past year. The job paid very well. More than enough to cover her rent that month. She just wanted it so badly.

Her agent had told her it was for the lead role in an independent film. Laila didn’t have a script or anything to work with beforehand as her agent told her it was only a go-see and not an actual audition. She was supposed to meet with the casting director who would interview her and see if she had the right look.

When she got there, she knew something wasn’t right. The audition took place in an apartment building with just the director, Lars Andersson. Laila felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up when she first saw him. He was skinny, with greasy looking black hair that hung over his brow like a curtain. The set up in the apartment was sparse, with only a beat up looking couch, wooden chair, camera, and a large bed occupying the space.

The director sat on the couch with the camera positioned right in front of him. He motioned for her to stand before him and looked her up and down, raking over every inch of her body with his eyes. Laila felt like she’d just been violated and shivered involuntarily. Her instincts were telling her to run. This wasn’t like any audition she’d ever been to before.

“So why don’t you make yourself comfortable on the bed right there,” the director told her pointing to the bed behind her covered in black satin sheets. She gave him a double take before shaking her head. There was no way in hell she was getting on any bed for anybody, least of all some creepy director. She wished she would have Googled him before she came, but it never even crossed her mind.

“No thanks,” she said. “I’ll stand.”

“But I insist,” he said.

“Well, I insist on standing.”

“Suit yourself then,” he shrugged. He pulled over a clipboard with some papers attached and took out a pen from the front pocket of his shirt. “I’m going to ask you some questions first. Just some formalities to get out of the way and then we can get right into the good stuff,” he said.

Laila relaxed a little and nodded at him, feeling slightly better about this audition.
Surely they wouldn’t be asking me any questions if they were shady?
she reasoned.

“Are you over 18?”

“Yes,” she said. She reached into her purse and pulled out a head shot and her resume to hand to the director. She had used her rent money to pay for the professional head shots. Laila had thought of it as an investment at the time. She figured that once she got this gig, she’d make more than enough to cover it. Now looking around, she had doubts and didn’t want to think about the $300 she spent.

Lars glanced over the black and white head shots and smiled. “Nice,” he said. “I’m going to need to see a copy of your driver’s license or other ID to verify your age.”

“Oh OK sure,” Laila said.

“Next question: do you have any STDs?”

“Ex-excuse me? What did you just ask me?”

“Do you have any STDs?” Lars enunciated each word clearly and spoke slowly as if he were talking to an idiot. Laila was not only caught off guard by the question, she was getting pissed off at his attitude.

“That’s none of your business,” she huffed. “What kind of a question is that?”

“It’s standard practice to ask about sexually transmitted diseases. I’m going to need for you to give me an answer.”

“NO!” Laila said.

She really wanted to turn on her heel and storm out of that apartment, but she stayed put, angry at herself and the situation she found herself in. Laila needed the money. She had counted on it ever since her agent told her about a great opportunity to earn some cash. She was already behind on her rent and her landlady had already given her a two month extension. If she didn’t come up with the rest of her rent, she’d be out on the street.

“Snippy snippy,” Lars said in a sing-song voice. He wrote something on the clipboard before looking back up at Laila. “Are your private parts shaved, waxed, or au natural?”

Laila had really had enough. It was one thing to ask about STDs, but there was no way she was going to give this creep an answer to this question. He seemed to sense her anger which made him smile wide at her. His teeth were stained yellow and he had large under bite.

“You really need to just relax, sweetheart,” he said. “I’m gonna see it anyways, so there’s no reason for you to get so angry.”

“Like hell you are!” Laila said. “I don’t know who you think you are or what kind of audition this is, but I’m leaving.”

Laila picked up her purse and turned on her heel, and was just about to march out of the front door when he spoke to her back.

“It’s a pity really. You’ve got just the look we were going for. Perhaps you’d reconsider if I doubled your fee?”

Laila stopped dead in her tracks. She turned around slowly and stared at the director. A slow smug smile stretched across his face as he knew he had her.

“Did you say you’d double my pay?” Laila asked.

“Easily,” he answered.

“What would I have to do exactly?”

“Oh not much at all. I’ll just need you to get naked and hop on that bed right over there,” he said.

“And then what?” she asked.

“That’s it.”

“That’s it? You’re gonna pay me all that money just to get naked and on that bed? I don’t have to do anything else?”

“For today.”

Laila didn’t like the sound of that last part, but desperation made her overlook it.

“I want the money today,” she said, sounding braver than she felt.

“Of course. Now be a good girl and start stripping.”

Laila swallowed the last bit of doubt she had, and nearly choked on it. Now was not the time to think about her morals or any other thing besides that paycheck. Feeling self-righteous wasn’t going to put food in her belly or keep a roof over her head. Her job at the hotel was just barely enough to cover the bills her mom had left her. If she walked out on this job, she didn’t know where another opportunity would come up where she could make this amount of money so soon, short of selling drugs.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She kicked off her black flats and her hands reached for the buttons on her jeans. She undid them and pulled the zipper down before sliding them off her legs. Next she grabbed the hem of her sweater and pulled it up over her head and placed it on the floor besides her jeans. Laila was standing only her bra and panties.